Free Partners (Fire & Lies - One) by Lilliana Anderson Page B

funds?”
    “Isn’t it
obvious?” she asks, looking at me like I have two heads. “With
someone on the inside.”
    “Someone on
the inside? No, Chloe. No. I personally screened every person who
entered that company–well, with the exception of you of course
which means that the inside person could only be you…”
    “Thank god you
have a military background, Aiden. Because if you used to be a cop,
I’d seriously worry about the safety of the normal person.”
    “Avoiding an
answer isn’t giving one, Chloe.”
    “There’s no
answer to give! I was NOT the man on the inside–or the woman. It
wasn’t me, ok?”
    “Then who?
Like I said, I screened them all–thoroughly. And I don’t fuck up,
Chloe.”
    “Then you
should have screened a little more thoroughly, because even model
employees can be blinded by an offer of great wealth to sell out
their employer.”
    As she talks,
she reaches into the box and pulls out a few folders and stacks of
paper before finding what she’s after.
    “See this
house?”
    I look at the
photo she’s placed in front of me. It’s of a massive white house
with a circular driveway and a columned entrance. “That’s not a
house. That’s a mansion.”
    “Do you know
whose mansion this is?”
    “Should
I?”
    “Who is the
one person who worked with my father every day and had access to
all of his appointments and files.”
    “That’s not my
house, Chloe.”
    “Not you.
Jesus… who is the other person who had access?”
    Frowning
slightly, I look from the house in the photo to Chloe and then back
again as if that photo was going to come to life and reveal the
answer for me. In a way, it kind of did, because suddenly, a face
popped into my mind.
    “Audrey?”
    “Yes, Audrey
Sargent, my father’s very own personal assistant.”
    “Holy shit.
But how? Why?” I ask, beginning to dig through the box, pulling out
all of the paperwork and surveillance photos that Chloe has
obviously been gathering over the course of the last two years.
    “Because she
was having an affair with Michael Goldsmith. With his tutelage, she
knew exactly what to do. My father and I were duped into thinking
we were creating the biggest corporate finance company in the world
by agreeing to join forces with them. But all we did was offer them
the keys to the kingdom and my father’s head on a platter.”
    She watches me
as I pour over the information she’d gathered. “How the hell do you
know Goldsmith is behind all of this? This all just points to
Audrey. And it’s circumstantial at best. Without solid evidence to
prove either of their involvement, no one will believe you.”
    “That’s why I
need you, Aiden. Audrey’s scared. She visited my father in prison
and admitted that she helped Goldsmith. She said she feared for her
life and told my father that she’d hidden some information as a way
to protect herself and that if anything happened to her, he would
‘know where to find it’. Dad didn’t have a clue what she was
talking about, so I went to her to ask her what it meant, hoping
she’d talk to me like she did to my father. But she acted like I
was crazy and wouldn’t tell me a thing–practically pushed me out
the door. Goldsmith must have been watching her, because the next
day, we received the call from the prison saying that dad tried to
end things. He’s been in a coma ever since.”
    “And what
about Audrey?”
    “She’s in that
house and doesn’t leave without an escort. But I’ve been watching
her. She goes to beauty appointments, clothing boutiques and
wherever Goldsmith requests her. It’s nothing out of the ordinary
for a kept woman, but she keeps all of her jewellery in a safe
deposit box and the bank she uses is the same one my mother used
for her jewellery. I think that’s where she’s hidden her proof. So,
I know where it is. I just can’t get to it.”
    “So you want
to go in there with your mother’s key and break into Audrey’s box
while you’re there?